


Of All The Things My Hands Have Held

by everyperfectsummer, Sweet_Tea_Owl



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: I'm choosing not to tag mcd, M/M, because while barry is dead, bopping around, doing character things, ghost!barry, he's still very much a character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-14
Updated: 2016-10-02
Packaged: 2018-08-08 15:32:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 9,942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7763287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/everyperfectsummer/pseuds/everyperfectsummer, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sweet_Tea_Owl/pseuds/Sweet_Tea_Owl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Reverse Flash succeeds at killing Barry Allen, and the Flash is born. Fifteen years later, it's your typical boy meets girl story; only in this case, it's dead hero boy meets supervillain boy. Together, they set out to prove that Henry Allen didn't kill his family, defeat Eobard Thawne, and find love.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. You Grabbed My Shirt?!

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Liu](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Liu/gifts).



> This was kindly betaed both by agentbarryallen and nixie-deangel. This whole thing is based of a conversation I had with Liu, and is hence gifted to her.  
> The chapter title is pending, and I accept any and all suggestions anyone has.

There’s a hero in Central now, saving kids from all who’d harm them. Oh, not through direct action, but through calling attention to the danger. A streak of lightning leading back and forth between the police station and kids in danger, calling the police to the scene of kids left home alone near stove, kids being beaten, kids who’d fallen out of trees, kids in any sort of danger or trouble. Afterwards, both kids and the police would swear that they’d seen a man in the lightning, pausing just a second to wave before vanishing.

Len snorted. As though calling the police solved everything. Even if the Flash, as locals were calling the lightning, had existed back when Len was a kid, the police wouldn’t have done anything. But people would’ve known, something in his mind whispered, the neighbors would’ve seen the Flash, seen the police not respond, and called Social Services themselves. Sooner or later, someone would’ve done something. He shrugs the thought aside; whatever could’ve happened, it didn’t, and the didn’t part is what matters.

He turns his attention away from the streak of light he sees leading down the street, and towards the museum in front of him. The police will respond to the light soon enough; while a child is in danger, it’s not something he has to fix. Not that he would, anyway; he’s a villain, not a hero.

Alright, so he has helped out some kids in the past, but only occasionally. A few acts of solidarity towards kids in the same situation he was in does not a pattern make, he tells himself. Anyway. Time to concentrate on the crime.

It’s a solo heist tonight; Mick’s not in Central at the moment, and Lisa’s off on a date. He can do this with one person, anyway. He has the blueprints in his pockets for reference just in case, not that he’ll need them - he memorized the layout of the place weeks ago. He carefully disables the alarm and sneaks inside.

Forty three minutes and seventeen seconds later, he’s out, three paintings tucked under one arm. He carefully stashes them in the trunk of his car, and then turns to spray his signature snowflake on the side of the museum with his gun. A “Cold was here” sign, if you will. The Flash is still streaking back and forth next to the museum, and just for the heck of it, Len turns his gun towards the lightning, catching the flash of light as it races by him. To his complete and utter astonishment, the light vanishes and a young man crashes to the ground, hitting it hard. 

Len’s no good samaritan, but he heard a nasty crack when the kid’s head hit the ground, so he goes over to check and make sure he’s ok. He hears a groan from the ground, and grabs the back of the kid’s red t-shirt, shifting him to face upwards so that Len can check his pupils. 

As he’s staring into the kid’s eyes and remembering just how much he doesn’t know about first aid, the kid seems to be losing his mind, mouth opening and closing as he reaches for Len, seemingly shocked at being able to touch him.

“You - you grabbed my shirt.”

“That I did, Scarlet. You feeling ok?”

“You grabbed my shirt.” Head trauma is seeming more likely by the minute.

“Yes,” Len drawls, “I did. Just like you’re grabbing mine right now.”

The kid looks down at his own fingers, currently grasping at the material of Len’s shirt, and opens and closes them repeatedly, seeming entranced.

“What’s your name? The year? How many fingers am I holding up?” Len asks in quick succession, as he holds up two fingers.

The kid breathes in, shakily, not talking his eyes off where his hands are holding onto Len’s shirt. “Uh, Barry Allen, sometime after 2000, and,” his eyes slide up momentarily towards Len’s hand, “two.”

Len draws in a gasp. Everyone knows about the Allen murder - it was the first one where the Flash appeared, a streak of lightning leading the police to a murdered family, a wife and son killed by the father. If the Flash is Barry Allen...that would explain so much. The person in front of him doesn’t look like a dead eleven year old, but a man in his mid twenties. Like the Allen kid would’ve been if he’d lived to grow up, his mind treacherously supplies.

Suddenly, arms are thrown around him, and he’s being hugged furiously. It takes him a second, but he decides to hug back, and he feels the front of his shirt grow wet as Barry cries into it.

“I haven’t hugged anyone in years, and you - you made me real. You made me real again,” Barry sobs.

“Yeah,” Len pats his back, frantically searching his mind for the tricks that used to work with Lisa, “that’s right, you’re real, everything is alright, you’re alright, everything’s ok.”

They sit like that for some time, until the crying dies down, and Barry sits back. “What’s your name?” he asks. 

“Len. Leonard Snart,” Len tells him, unsure as to why he’s trusting a stranger with his real name. Then again, it hardly seems likely that Barry will tell anyone.

“Len...if I can hug people, do you think that I can eat?”

Len laughs, and then sees that Barry was completely serious.

“I think I can make that happen.”

Twenty minutes later, they’re sitting in a diner across from the police station, Len watching as Barry scarfs down half the menu. “Slow down, Scarlet. It’ll still be here tomorrow.”

“But I won’t,” Barry says sadly. “I can already feel myself becoming less real.” He holds up a hand, and sure enough, it’s becoming translucent, allowing Len to see through to the seat behind him.

Len fiddles with the salt, searching for a change in topic.

“Gotta say, my old man never killed me, but he came close enough times that I feel for you. Is that why you save other kids?” He winces internally. Not only was that not a smooth topic shift, it’s a pretty heavy topic in general. Hardly something to discuss on a first meeting with someone.

Barry leans forward, suddenly animated. “He didn’t kill my mother or me. It was someone like me, a ghost in the lightning. He wanted to kill me to steal my energy once I became a ghost, but I was too fast for him. He’s still chasing me, but he hasn’t caught up yet.”

Len ponders the new information, trying to grasp onto the idea of evil ghosts, of fathers who never committed harm. “That’s...well, I’m glad it wasn’t your father at least.”

Barry dims slightly. “He’s in jail, and he shouldn’t be. I want to prove him innocent, but it’s difficult when I’m incorporeal.” He brightens again. “But your gun can make me physical, so I can prove that he didn’t do it! If you’ll keep shooting me, that is. I can understand if you don’t want to help me.”

Len’s never been a hero in his life, but the kid’s looking at him like he is, like he not only thinks that Len can save him but wholeheartedly believes he will, and the urge to prove that belief right grabs Len’s tongue and makes him say “I’ll help you save your father.”

Barry grins at him, looking for all the world like the cheshire cat, all grin and no boy as his body fades even further, turning transparent. Barry reaches out to put his hand on Len’s, and it goes through him. The grin fades, and Barry fades with it, disappearing entirely. “After I get the check,” Len promises to thin air, “I’ll go outside and shoot you again.”

He’s not sure, but he thinks he hears the sound of a faint “Thanks!”


	2. You Wouldn't Believe Me If I Told You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After meeting up with the police, Barry and Len explore every restaurant and library in Central, charming the waitresses at the Motorcar with their cuteness and ticking off the librarians.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was betaed by the lovely frencnavy and the lovely nixie-deangel from tumblr. Thanks!

After a few days of false starts and more hugging than Len’s had in a lifetime, they start to work out a pattern. A direct hit with the gun turns Barry corporeal for around an hour, which is time that Barry can spend hugging, talking, and eating. It’s also time that he spends not saving every kid in Central, which wracks Barry with guilt. For some reason, he gets either a physical body or his speed; it’s a tradeoff between the two. Gradually, they hit on noon and midnight, an hour where most kids are safely in school or asleep, to make Barry visible each day. As the days pass, they start to put together a plan to prove Barry’s father innocent. The first step? Talking to the police.

....

Through the years, Len had become rather well acquainted with Central City’s finest, and he knew the ones who were just going through the motions versus the ones who were dedicated to finding the guilty, or protecting the innocent - two very different law enforcement goals. There was one cop who had a bit of both goals inside him, and so he was the one whose house Len waited outside of, to try and get some help.

Len stands in the darkness away from the door, hidden from anyone who wasn’t looking too closely. As Eddie Thawne walks up the sidewalk to his door, Len steps out of the shadows, talking Thawne by surprise.

“Detective.”

“Snart. Haven’t had a case of yours come up recently.”

“This isn’t about me.”

“I’m sure it isn’t.”

“What does it take to reopen a case? How much evidence?”

“Want to keep all of yours shut? We’ll find something we can use against you one of these days.”

“No, I want to open a case that someone else committed. A murder case.”

“Didn’t think murder was your type of crime.” It was true; for all the crimes he’d committed, murder had only ever been a last resort, never the end goal.

“It’s not. How much evidence does it take to reopen? You guys caught the wrong person.”

Thawne straightens up, looking alert and indignant. “What makes you think that?”

“Eyewitness says the man you caught didn’t do it.”

“If there was an eyewitness, we’d know,” Eddie insists, his uncertain tone contradicting his words. “What murder is this, anyway?”

“The Allen murder. From ‘01.”

“Someone witnessed that and waited this long to tell someone? And told you?”

“Don’t sound so surprised, detective. They had reason to trust me. And reason not to be able to tell anyone.”

“Who are they?”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you. They can’t testify in court, which is why we need more evidence that Henry Allen didn’t do it. How much evidence would it take to reopen the case?”

For all his bluster, Thawne seems to believe Len. “Well, it really depends on the judge...but anything that could prove for certain that another person was at the scene. Fingerprints, anything. An eyewitness would be best, but if they can’t testify...you just need to prove that another person could have done it. That’d reopen the case. It’d be harder to actually get Allen out of jail, which I assume is the end goal?”

...

Barry watches their interaction from behind a tree. Despite being incorporeal once again and invisible, as being visible takes him some effort, he still feels the need to hide himself. He’s glad Len had chosen to confide in Detective Thawne. He’s one of his favorites, and when he alerted the police to a crime, Thawne and his partner, Detective West, were usually some of the first respond. Thawne was also good with the children, which Barry appreciated greatly.

They needed compelling evidence that someone else was in the house? But he and his mother had been killed by a ghost - there were no fingerprints to find. Unless - what if Barry could testify, after all? When he was corporeal, he really and truly was. Maybe they could do a DNA test or something, prove that he was who he said he was? But who would take testimony from a ghost? No. There had to be a better way, and Barry would find it. With help from Len, of course.

At the door, Len was taking his leave from the detective, with a tone full of mockery. “It’s been great talking with you, detective. I’m sure I’ll...catch you around.”

Barry could barely make out the muttered, “Not if we catch you first, Snart,” before Len was striding away from the door, past Barry. Barry hurries to catch up, and with some difficulty, makes himself visible. It wasn’t the same as being corporeal by a long shot - he couldn’t touch Len, couldn’t feel the ground under his feet or the wind on his face, but he could interact with him.

“So, evidence?” he says, still feeling the strain of the conversion to visible.

“Yep.”

“You’ll help me find it?”

“Of course.”

And thus began a months long search for any sort of evidence that could prove a ghost existed. At Barry’s urging, Len put together a board covered with newspaper clippings about the murder. They spent hours in libraries and on the internet, looking up any sort of information they could. But despite looking through hours of microfilm and annoying every librarian in Central, they were no closer to proving the existence of a ghost at the scene than they had been at the beginning.

They’d also made a minor quest of visiting every restaurant in Central, so that Barry could experience as many types of food as possible. Despite discovering a fondness for Indian, and a bottomless appetite for any kind of pizza, Barry’s favorite was still the Motorcar, where he’d eaten for the first time in fifteen years. It was there that he and Len returned, time and time again, eating there often enough that the waitresses began to ask if they wanted “the usual” rather than offering them the menu. 

Time after time, they sat in the booth, discussing everything from proving Barry’s father innocence to Len’s most recent heists. Barry had found out about Len’s profession, and didn’t approve, stubbornly insisting that Len was a good person despite being a criminal, and deserved better than being a criminal. Len disagreed, but it warmed his heart to hear that Barry thought so. 

One day, as they were eating in the Motorcar while looking at photocopies of old newspapers, Barry gives up, tossing his copy aside. “This is ridiculous! We need to put someone else at the scene, but it has to be someone who exists in real life, not a ghost. But not someone innocent, we can’t frame someone.”

“So you’re saying we need to frame someone who’s already guilty of murder?” Len suggests.

Barry is aghast at the very idea. “No! That’d be wrong. We can’t frame someone who didn’t do it.”

“There’s someone I know who literally got away with murder, who should have more time on his sentence than he does. Giving this murder to him would be adding justice, not undermining it.”

“Who?”

“My father.”

“But he didn’t -” Barry knows at this point that Len’s father wasn’t the best, but he’s spent too long wishing to protect his father to feel comfortable sacrificing someone else’s.

“Trust me, Barry. He’s guilty of more than enough. Besides. Doing this will put him away for longer, and that will help make Lisa safer.”

Barry has heard enough about Len’s sister at this point to care about her, even though he’d never met her, and the argument overcame his natural love of justice. “So...how do we frame him?”

“Not the easiest heist I’ve ever planned, but I have enough of his old stuff to plant fingerprints. Getting the evidence box to plant them in is going to be the hard part. Tell you what, Scarlet. You bring me the location of the old evidence box, and I’ll plant it for you. I know more than enough about evidence at this point.”

Barry nods. “Ok.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If someone could offer suggestions for chapter titles, that'd be great, since I still have no idea what to make them!


	3. 52 minutes, 36 seconds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Len discovers something concerning about Barry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was once again betaed by the lovely nixie-deangel and the wonderful frencnavy.

Barry nods. “Ok.” They chat a few minutes more, and then Barry vanishes, leaving Len to deal with the bill, and an increasingly disturbing thought. 52 minutes, 36 seconds. That’s how long Barry had been corporeal today. The time before that, 52 minutes and 47 seconds, and when they’d first met he was corporeal for an hour, 12 minutes, and 17 seconds. 

Len didn’t like to think it, but - the gun was affecting Barry less and less each time. At this rate they had less than a year before it stopped working entirely. Len thinks about the prospect of Barry left alone and incorporeal for the rest of eternity, still able to walk and talk but once again unable to eat, unable to hug, unable to truly interact with humanity. 

If there was anything left of his heart to break, it breaks then, thinking of that possibility. No. He couldn’t allow that to happen. But what could he do? It wasn’t as though there existed an expert on ghosts, or an expert on the cold gun - ah. Of course. There was someone who might know something. 

It was time to talk to Cisco Ramon.

...

Cisco was sitting in a tipped chair at one of the consoles with his sneakers propped up on the edge of the desk and a pair of headphones over his ears when Leonard Snart appeared in of the corner of his vision. He hadn’t seen the man since the day when he stole the cold gun Cisco had been messing around with. He lets out a (definitely manly) squeal and falls backwards to the floor, hitting his head hard.

Cisco groans in pain and makes no move to get up until he remembers why he was on the floor in the first place. Then he sits up fast, making his head spin and the quickly growing bump on the back of it throb in time with his heartbeat. 

“What are you doing here?! I don’t have any more weapons for you to steal and threaten me with!” Cisco exclaimed, crawling backwards away from Snart.

“I’m not here for any more weapons. I just have question about the cold gun.” Snart rolls his eyes and offers a hand to Cisco in order to help him up. Cisco stares at the hand suspiciously before getting up on his own.

“What did you do? Break it? I should’ve known a criminal wouldn’t know how to work such a delicate piece of technology. W-well, I’m not fixing it if that’s what you’re after.” Cisco stuttered and crossed his arms over his chest defensively.

“It’s working just fine,” Snart drawls. “Too well, one could say. I decided to try freezing the Flash a few months ago. It worked. Turns out the Flash is a ghost, and freezing him makes him corporeal.”

“Okay first of all, why would you do that? People love the Flash! And second of all, that’s insane. Ghosts don’t exist, and even if they did, the gun wouldn’t - no wait, unless…” He considers it for a moment. Technically, given what the gun did, and depending on the nature of ghosts, it was possible. “...no, that could work. Maybe you’re not so crazy after all. So you have a ghost, that’s becoming physical. Tell me everything.”

“First of all, it’s wearing off.”

“What?”

“He’s becoming corporeal for less and less time each time that it happens. I’m worried that one day, it will stop working entirely, and trap him in an incorporeal state.”

Cisco starts brainstorming almost immediately. “I could maybe try a few things, see if I could make him corporeal permanently. You’d have to bring him in for tests, though.”

“There’s one other thing.”

“Mmm?” says Cisco, already lost in a haze of calculation.

“There’s an evil ghost after him, that can turn corporeal at will. That ghost is what killed him in the first place. We need a way to trap that ghost.”

Cisco mentally adds “find a way to trap a ghost” to his list of problems to tackle, and says “Ok, I can try that too. But again, we’ll need your ghost to run tests.”

Snart nods his assent. “But you think you can do it?”

“If I could make ghosts physical by accident, dude?” Cisco says, having by now forgotten his hatred of Snart in the midst of a scientific problem. “I can damn well do it on purpose.”

Snart nods again, and leaves him to it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm sorry that this is so short, but I swear the next one will be longer, and it's almost done, so you'll get it soon!


	4. Unnamed Eyewitness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Len tampers with evidence, meets with the police, and the police discuss matters. Blink and you'll miss it relationship between Iris and Patty.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Betaed by nixie-deangel and frencnavy over on tumblr. :)

Planting the evidence is laughably easy; after Barry tells him the location of the evidence, Len simply waits for a time with high crime, turns off the cameras, and marches straight inside the police station wearing a janitor’s uniform. No one questions him or his handful of cleaning supplies, and allow him to walk in, plant Lewis’s fingerprints on the knife, and walk right back out.

Now, to contact the police again.

...

The door of the Motorcar opens, and two policemen, one of whom is in fact a policewoman, walk in; not an unusual sight, given the location of the police station across the street. What is unusual is the level of hostility on their faces as they search for and find Len amongst the crowd. They head over, and despite Len gesturing to the booth across from him, stay standing up. “Well? You said you wanted to meet,” Thawne says.

“And I see you brought Detective West with you. Hello, Ms. West,” Len says.

“What do you want, Snart?” West responds.

“Do you remember that conversation we had, it must be eight months ago now? About reopening the Allen case?”

“About your mysterious eyewitness who can’t testify?” Thawne looks sceptical. “I remember.”

“I have reason to believe that you are already in possession of all the evidence needed to reopen the case. You just need to retest it. It’s all in the evidence that you collected after the murder. The perpetrator held the knife, and didn’t wear gloves. His fingerprints were partially covered by Henry Allen’s when he tried to stabilize the knife to provide first aid to his wife, but there should be some proof left on the knife.”

“And how would you know that?” Thawne asks again, suspicion clear in his voice.

“My eyewitness says that the murderer held the weapon in multiple positions before finally using it, while Allen only ever held one part of the knife. That means that there have to be fingerprints left that weren’t covered.”

Thawne is looks convinced, while West is still suspicious. “And why should we believe you, Snart? You saying we yet can’t interview this witness of yours, but should take their word for it on a murder case that was closed over a decade ago.”

Len spreads his hands out wide. “Yes. Look. What do you have to lose? An afternoon searching for fingerprints? Worst case scenario, you’ve wasted a few hours. Best case scenario, you see justice served. You right a wrong that, as you just emphasized, has gone on for over a decade. You see an innocent man go free and catch the real killer. Don’t the benefits outweigh the costs?”

“If we retested all the evidence every time someone asked us too, we’d never do anything else, Snart.”

“How about I throw in a bonus? If you test the evidence, I won’t commit any heists in central for three months. Not that I, as a law abiding citizen, would do otherwise, of course.”

That seems to only heighten Iris’s suspicion. “And what do you get out of it?”

“I happen to care for the eyewitness, and they in turn care deeply that justice is served. I may also know who the real killer is, and care deeply that he’s forced to pay for his crimes.”

“His crimes?” Thawne asks.

“I am, of course, speculating as to the killer’s gender just as I am speculating as to the possibility of my committing heists in the months to come.”

Thawne and West exchange glances, and seem to come to a decision. “I can’t guarantee anything,” West says, “but we’ll ask the captain if he wouldn’t mind us rerunning the tests. No harm can come from looking at the evidence one more time, just to make sure, after all.”

Len smiles. “Excellent. Now, if you wouldn’t mind, I’m about to meet someone.” He holds his hand up to signal for the check, and proceeds to leave the restaurant, leaving Thawne and Barry’s childhood friend behind.

…

It takes some doing, but between Eddie’s earnestness and Iris’s legendary stubbornness, they convince Singh to retest the knife from the Allen case. Patty Spivot, the newest CSI, is given the knife and told not to make it a priority. She nevertheless finishes it by the next day, declaring it the most exciting thing she’s had to do all week.

The results stun everyone. Not only are there extra fingerprints on the knife, the fingerprints are already in the system, belonging to a convicted criminal by the name of Lewis Snart. Joe, who remembers Lewis, tells them all that Len got his start as a criminal by going with his father on jobs. 

“He says there’s an eyewitness who can’t testify? Iris, remember when you were in middle school and you’d come to me about problems pretending that it was about a friend of yours? Maybe that eyewitness is Leonard Snart himself.”

Eddie feels as though he’s about to be sick. Dragging your kid along on a robbery was one thing, but dragging him along on a murder…He thinks back to what Snart had said, when Eddie had asked him why he cared about the case. “He said he cares deeply about making sure that the person who did this is punished. If Snart Sr. really did make Junior come along with him to help with a murder, that’d make sense. That’d explain how he knew about the knife, too.”

“Wouldn’t explain why he waited so long to come forward,” Singh says, playing devil’s advocate.

“Fear,” Iris says. “You said he was abused, right Dad? If your dad hurt you and got away with it, and then killed someone and got away with it, you’d hardly want to make him mad at you. Or maybe he was worried about being accused of being an accomplice.”

“Makes sense,” Joe says.

Patty bounces slightly in place, overcome with excitement. “So, does this mean we should start proceedings to reopen the case?”

Singh sighs, resigned. “Looks like it. It’s not enough to necessarily prove Allen didn’t do it, but it’s enough for reasonable doubt, and we do in theory believe in innocent until proven guilty.”

Patty cheers. “Don’t you have tests to be running, Spivot?” Singh asks testily.

“Right, sir, I’ll get on that right away!” she says. “I love proving people innocent, though!” she adds, before darting upstairs. Iris chuckles slightly at her girlfriend’s antics, and then looks away as Singh glares at her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know the relationship between Patty and Iris is blink and you'll miss it here but it's such an important part of this verse to me. !Police girlfriends!


	5. The Hula Hoop of Doom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Your authors explain fake science via Cisco.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was betaed by nixe-deangel and frencnavy.

Two weeks later sees Barry and Len walking into Star Labs, to meet with a man Len says is called Cisco for his tests. He comes running up to greet them, a lollipop in his mouth. “So, man, I wasn’t able to fix the major problem at hand - although I have some great ideas, never fear! - but I was able to address the secondary issue.” He turns around and begins to lead them inside.

Barry looks sideways at Len. “What problem? You still haven’t explained why we’re here.”

Len looks almost sad for a second, before turning to Cisco. “Why don’t you explain about what you have managed to fix.”

“Well, not for sure. That’s why you’re here! So that we can test it.” He turns to Barry. “So you’re the ghost, huh? Nice work being the Flash, dude. Total respect.”

Barry feels his perpetual smile start to widen. He likes this man already. “Thanks, I appreciate it. Thanks for - Len said you made the cold gun?”

“A Cisco Ramon original,” Cisco says, putting the lollipop back in his mouth. “So. Let me show you my ghost trap.”

Barry freezes in betrayal. “You asked him to make a trap? For me?”

“No, no,” Len reassures him. “For the man in the lightning, who killed you.”

“Dude, if this man in the lightning killed you, that makes him like...the Reverse Flash!” Cisco proclaims proudly, still leading them.

“We don’t need to give this guy names, just catch him,” Len says, sounding aggravated. Barry secretly thinks it’s because he’s been robbed of naming rights.

They’ve made it into a room that has bits of metal and gears strewn everywhere. Cisco strides towards one pile, picks up something that’d basically a giant meta hoola hoop and tosses it over Barry. Barry stumbles, and reaches a hand towards Len to keep from toppling over. 

His hand never makes it, hitting something in the middle of the air and stopping. He begins to panic, hitting at the invisible walls around him. “I repurposed some parts that were going to go into the particle accelerator and but we had too many of. Pretty cool, huh?” Cisco says, while Barry fervently tries to escape. He tries to pick the hula hoop up and fling it over his head and away from him, but his fingers skitter away from it. He starts hyperventilating. 

“Hey, hey, it’s ok,” Cisco says, rushing over. “We can turn it off.” He presses a switch on the outside of the hoop, and Barry is free. He jumps out of the hoop, and grabs Len’s arm, searching for reassurance. 

Len twitches slightly, but doesn’t ask him to let go, which Barry takes as permission. At this point, he can tell when Len truly doesn’t want to be touched versus when he’s just putting on a show.

“So. Barry. My new friend, my pal, mi amigo, what’cha say we call that test a success and never repeat it again?” Cisco says.

“I like that idea,” Barry says, shuddering at the prospect of being trapped like that again. He’d never thought of himself as claustrophobic, but after being nothing but pure speed for so long, the idea of being trapped was horrifying to him.

Cisco starts explaining how the trap works. “It’s basic tenth grade philosophy mixed with vibrational physics. Basically, Epicurus was right about humans having an unnamed particle. The difference between us and Barry is that he’s entirely made of that unnamed particle, whereas we have carbon and water and stuff. We’ll call that extra particle the Phantom particle. Because it makes ghosts, get it?” Len rolls his eyes, but Barry feels amused. “Basically, with nothing else weighing it down, the phantom particle vibrates really, really fast, which is what creates the Flash’s speed and also makes you vibrate through things. Since the cold gun can reach almost absolute zero it alters the vibrations of the phantom particle, slowing it, and allowing it to interact with other particles. When the fast moving particles come in contact with the cold gun it essentially slows them down to the point where they’re tangible and won’t move through other objects. If the cold gun actually reached absolute zero Barry would basically come to a complete stop, as in everything he was made of would stop moving, even time itself. I’m actually kinda glad I didn’t succeed in making the gun reach that temperature."

Barry thinks he understands, and says so, but Len still looks blank, and Cisco tries to help him understand. “It’s not that Barry’s incorporeal most of the time, just barely corporeal. Barely enough that it seems like he’s not corporeal at all. What the trap does, is it reacts to the vibrational frequency of barely corporeal Barry - that is, it reacts to the phantom particle being present in vast quantities with no carbon around it - and refuses to let it out.”

Seeing no comprehension on Len’s face and full comprehension on Barry’s, Cisco changes the subject. “How long do you have left physical?” Cisco asks.

“Probably around 34 minutes, twenty-some seconds,” Len says promptly. Barry beams. He loves that Len cares enough to keep track for him, and thinks Len’s competence at it is cute.

“Great! Then while you’re still able to interact with us, how about a guided tour of Star Labs? I can introduce you to Caitlin, she’ll love being able to meet a real live ghost. And Ronnie! Ugh, probably Hartley too, I guess…” he says, once again leading them through the tunnels. Barry turns to grin at Len, before tugging him to follow along after Cisco. Len makes a big show of looking put upon, and follows.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's so short! More is coming soon I swear!


	6. Everything I've Ever Wanted

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Len and Barry make friends, and Len discovers angst.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Betaed by frencnavy and nixie-deangel.

After that, Barry, and, although he doesn’t want to admit it, Len as well, become friends with the STAR Labs crew. All of them scientists, they were skeptical about the prospect of Barry being a ghost until he vanished in front of their eyes. Having seen him now appear and reappear, and having compared his picture to an aged-up picture of the dead Barry Allen, they were finally convinced, and by that point were already his friends.

 

Cisco makes them all laugh, Caitlin and Ronnie work tirelessly to help research ghosts, and even Hartley helps out, with Cisco and Hartley working together to put together running patterns so that the Flash can find children faster and more efficiently. Barry gets to meet his childhood hero, Harrison Wells, and is stunned when Wells officially declares STAR’s next unofficial project ghost research solely for the prospect of helping Barry. 

 

Meanwhile, things are looking well for Henry Allen. His case has been reopened, and between his good behavior in prison, and the CCPD’s apparent failure to test and present all evidence at the original trial, his lawyer is pretty confident that she can help Allen go free within the year. “It’s everything I’ve ever wanted,” Barry tells Len. “I feel like the reason I became a ghost was to help my dad, and if I’ve helped him go free, I’ll be happy.”

 

Just as things are looking up on that front, they’re looking worse on another. The Reverse Flash has appeared more and more often recently to try and catch Barry, occasionally waiting for him at the site of a child in danger. Barry’s evaded all of the Reverse Flash’s attempts to catch him so far, but he quietly confesses to Len that he’s afraid it’s only a matter of time. The STAR Labs crew double down on their efforts to trap or banish a ghost entirely. While they already have the Doom Hula Hoop, as Barry and Cisco have taken to calling it, they have no idea how to trap the Reverse Flash inside of it, and so are looking for any and all alternative solutions.

 

One day, as the team is eating Cisco’s tacos, Caitlin marches in with a stack of folklore books. “I’ve been researching,” she announces, “and there are a few different ways to get rid of ghosts for good. Of course, ghosts are still widely considered myths, so none of these are certain, but they’re all worth a try.One is an exorcism, which seems promising, and although we don’t have a priest I’m confident we can find one. One is helping them achieve their purpose and allowing them to move on, which seems less promising, since the Reverse’s purpose seems to be murder and we don’t want that…” she continues speaking but Len can’t hear a word she’s saying over the sound of his own thoughts.

 

_ “It’s everything I’ve ever wanted,” _ Barry had said about freeing his father.  _ “I feel like the reason I became a ghost was to help my dad.” _ How had Len never considered what Barry might want? That Barry might not want to forever remain a ghost, corporeal for at most two hours a day, trapped with a thief and some scientists? He was dead, and he had an afterlife waiting for him. Given the sort of person he was, what he’d chosen to do with his ghosthood, he probably had  _ heaven _ waiting for him. Who was Len to try and keep him from that?

 

“…and so that’s why I think our best chance is to use the hula hoop to contain him, and then exorcise him,” Caitlin finished. Len tried to look as though he’d been paying attention, but he couldn’t stop looking at Barry, scarfing down tacos, looking for all the world like a living man enjoying lunch with his friends. The thought of losing him sends a pang through Len, but he can’t  _ not  _ help him save his father.

 

“Good idea,” he says, getting up. “I’ll help you plan how to use the hula hoop.”

 

“Of Doom!” Barry and Cisco chorus in unison.

 

…

 

At long last, Henry Allen is about to go free. Through legal maneuvering that Barry didn’t quite understand, lawyers and judges have gotten together, decided the fact that critical evidence was not included in his trial was an egregious error on the part of the prosecution, and let him go. STAR Labs throws a party, complete with cake and balloons. Barry tries beer for first time and is getting drunk in a corner with Ronnie while Caitlin and Cisco confront Len.

 

“Barry’s obviously going to be there when his dad goes free,” Cisco tells Len. 

“Yes,” Len says, bemused.

 

“You don’t understand,” Caitlin says. “He’s  _ obviously _ going to be there. You know it, we know it,  _ the Reverse Flash knows it. _ ”

 

Len suddenly feels like a fool, for not grasping the implications. “You think he’s going to be waiting for Barry.”

 

“Or meet him there,” Caitlin says.

 

“Which means it’s the perfect opportunity to set a trap!” Cisco says excitedly, quickly quieting his voice as Barry and Ronnie look their way. “The only problem is how to use the Doom Hula Hoop to trap the Reverse Flash without trapping Barry.”

 

“I could help with that,” says Hartley, materializing out of nowhere. “I’ve tested Barry’s exact vibrational frequency, and could program the hoop to not react to that specific frequency, so that it’ll trap all ghosts except him.”

 

They all turn to look at Len, expectantly, to see if he’ll approve of the plan or veto it. He makes a decision. “We’ll ask Barry what he thinks.” He knows that Barry will say yes, that Barry will always agree to play the hero if given half a chance, but he thinks it’s worth it, to rid Barry of the specter of the Reverse Flash once and for all.  _ After all, _ he thinks, _ he may not have a chance, afterwards. He may move on to the afterlife. _ He stuffs that thought hurriedly away in a corner of his brain, and walks towards Barry to ask him about the plan. “On second thought,” he says, as Barry literally falls over laughing, “maybe we’ll ask him once he’s sober.” Hartley sniffs disapprovingly, but all three scientists look amused, even Hartley.


	7. Return of the Reverse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We see Eobard again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's a Merlin reference hidden in here somewhere, for those of you who care to look. JK, it's not hidden at all.

Barry decided he would go to his father’s release as the Flash, still unable to explain his still being alive, well not actually alive just kind of alive, to his father. He’d been hoping he’d get some time to see his dad but when the crew arrived the Reverse Flash was waiting. The poltergeist was tangible at the moment and he had his hand wrapped around the unconscious Henry Allen’s throat. The evil being laughed and it was one of the most terrifying things Barry had ever heard. Not because the laugh was distorted or dark sounding like you’d expect, but because it was so incredibly human sounding.

 

“Barry,” Eobard’s voice sounded creepily fond of Barry and it made him shudder, “About time you show up, your father and I have been waiting for you.” The monster smiled at Barry adoringly. “You know Barr,” Eobard continued, “Maybe if I’d killed both of your parents then you wouldn’t have had a reason to stay and I could have had your life force.” He stroked Henry’s neck thoughtfully with the thumb of the hand gripping his throat, “Maybe if I killed him now you’d move on.” 

 

The evil speedster started to tighten his grip visibly and Barry cried out, “Wait!” reaching out a hand as if to stop him.

 

“Yes?” Eobard loosened his hand.

 

“I-I’ll give you my speed. Just let him go. Please,” Barry pleaded.

 

“See, it’s not so hard to let go Barry. Your father is going free. What more do you have keeping you here?” The speedster smirked and circled Barry slowly after dropping Henry to the floor. 

 

Len walked into the room behind Eobard in time to hear those last few words and his heart immediately sunk. Eobard was mostly right after all. What was keeping Barry here after they stopped the Reverse Flash? He quickly pushed the thoughts to the back of his mind and raised the gun. 

 

“You’re keeping him here. Someone has to stop you and only he can do it.” Len said, catching Eobard’s attention and shooting him in the shoulder with the gun. 

 

The poltergeist hissed angrily and turned on Len, “How dare you interfere! This is between me and Barry!” Suddenly Eobard had a hold of Len and they were outside of the prison. “I’ve put up with your meddling long enough!” The speedster raised his hand and started vibrating it. Over his shoulder Len saw Barry appear and he silently pleaded with his eyes for Barry to do nothing.

 

Eobard didn’t notice Barry arrival and he laughed maniacally, “it's time to get rid of you once and for all!” He yelled and brought his hand down quickly, jamming it through Len’s shoulder. 

 

“No!” Barry screamed and he grabbed Len for the first time as the Flash, his anguish giving him the energy to make himself temporarily corporeal. He didn’t think about it, too caught up in the moment and he took Len and ran.

 

“Barry?!” Cisco shrieked when Barry appeared in the back of the van carrying Len in his arms, “What happened? Why are you here? How are you carrying him?”

 

“Eobard stabbed Len, I don’t know how I’m carrying him, and I need you and Caitlin to do whatever you can to save him. Where’s the trap?” Barry spotted the trap leaning against the wall of the van and he grabbed it, running back out to meet his nemesis before he could find the van. Already he could feel his tangibility fading. During the brief moment he’d spent in the van it had started to rain and he slid to a stop in front of Eobard, skating across wet grass. 

 

“You son of bitch,” Barry spat, wanting to break the man.

 

“What’s the matter Barry? Did I kill your pet criminal? Who knew the Flash would stoop so low as to frame an innocent man for his father’s murder. Hanging out with that man wasn’t good for my innocent little Barry and you should thank me for freeing you of him.” Eobard remarked haughtily. 

 

“Fuck you!” Barry screamed, “Len was a great influence. He gave me so much. I can never thank him enough.”

 

Eobard’s eyes widened at Barry’s swearing before realization dawned across his face and he started laughing, “Oh-oh my god! You’re in love with hi-him!” The speedster wrapped his arms around his waist and bent double, “And I killed him. That’s priceless!” He straightened and wiped tears of mirth from his eyes.

 

Barry gasped. Eobard was right. He was in love with Len. And now Len was probably dead. Barry was filled with rage and he roared, running at Eobard, catching him by surprise.

 

The speedsters clashed like lightning in the rain, trading blows in an almost equal show of power. Except that Barry's solidly was quickly fading and his hits were losing impact. It wouldn't be long before he lost it completely and Eobard overpowered him.

 

…

 

“Oh god oh god oh god,” Cisco's panicked voice filtered in as Len slowly reached consciousness. He groaned and Cisco's chant gained the work ‘thank’ in between ‘oh’ and ‘god.’ 

 

Len cracked open his eyes and grimaced at the throbbing in his shoulder, “How long was I out?”

 

“Uh- about thirty minutes,” Cisco stared at Len, wide-eyed, “Dude, doesn’t that hurt?” He pointed at the bloody mess that was Len’s shoulder.

 

“I’ll live. Probably,” Len growled and he sat up, “Where’s Barry? And where’s the hoop?”

 

“Barry took it and left. He was able to touch it. And he carried you here. I thought he couldn’t do that. Wait- where are you going?!” Cisco yelped as Len shoved past him to get out of the van.

 

“He can’t.” Len muttered and he started walking towards the flashes of lightning in the distance. Barry needed his help, he just knew it. A strange noise was coming from the fight and it took Len a moment to realize it was screaming. Barry screaming. With a hand clutching the wound, he broke into a run.

 

…

 

Barry was losing, horribly. He couldn’t hold on to his tangibility any longer, losing the hoop a couple feet back and Eobard had managed to damage his leg, despite him being a ghost. Maybe if he survived he’d ask Cisco how he managed to do that. His injured leg was slowing him down significantly and Eobard was gaining on him fast so Barry turned around in a last ditch effort, racing back to the hoop. If he could just stay solid for a bit longer, he could trap the Reverse Flash.

 

Barry’s leg gave out a couple feet from the hoop and he crashed to the ground, sliding through mud and rain slicked grass until he was just out of arm's reach. He yelled in frustration and tried to crawl closer but Eobard was already upon him, his hand fisting in Barry’s hair. He yelled again, trying to pull the evil spirits fingers out of his hair but the murderer only laughed and tightened his grip.

 

“If you won’t give me your speed I’ll just have to take it,” Eobard hissed and without preamble he shoved his fist into the center of Barry’s chest. 

 

Barry screamed. His entire being pure agony. It hadn’t even hurt this much when he died. He writhed in Eobard’s grip.

 

…

 

Len had never heard anything so awful in his life. Not even his sister’s sounds of pain when their father beat her had sounded this horrible. This sounded like pure, unimaginable pain. The lights had stopped moving around and red and yellow lightning exploded and danced around two figures up ahead. 

 

Len picked up the pace until he tripped and nearly fell, his foot hitting something solid. It was the hoop. He picked it up and continued hurrying towards the clashing energy. His shoulder was starting to go numb from blood loss but he ignored it, slowing down when he reached the two speedsters. 

 

Len gasped when he saw Eobard’s hand was inside Barry’s chest. He could hear Eobard yelling at Barry.

 

“See if you had just given your speed to me it wouldn’t hurt so much Barry! Why couldn’t you just do as you’re asked?” The evil speedster slid his hand deeper into Barry’s chest and the screaming intensified, making Len’s ears ring. He slowly circled the two, careful not to capture Eobard’s attention, not that anything could tear the poltergeists attention away from Barry at the moment, until he was standing directly behind him and he switched on the trap, arming it.

 

…

 

Over the sound of his own screaming, Barry caught the faint noise the hoop made when it was turned on and he forced open his eyes, expecting to see Cisco. Instead he saw an ashen looking Len standing behind Eobard. He watched as Len grimaced and raised the hoop over his head and then brought it down around Eobard.

 

Eobard’s arm was forced out of Barry and he screamed in rage, trying to force his way out of the trap to no avail. Barry collapsed to the ground and Eobard screamed louder, frantically trying to get past the invisible barrier but the trap held. Len breathed a sigh of relief, not convinced the trap would work on the Reverse Flash up until this point. He rushed over to Barry and tried to touch him and make sure he was okay while Hartley and Cisco came up behind them. His hands passed through Barry and the static he usually felt was faint but Barry opened his eyes and smiled weakly up at him.

 

“You did it. You’re okay,” Barry’s voice was faint. Behind them Hartley was successfully exorcising Barry’s personal demon but they only had eyes for each other.

 

“We did do it.” Len laughed tiredly.

 

“And the exorcism’s working?” Barry asked.

 

Len turned to look behind him, “Yeah it’s working,” He watched Eobard writhe and scream for a bit before turning back to look at Barry, noticing he was visibly fainter.

 

“Good,” Barry smiled and closed his eyes.

 

“Barry?!” Len cried out, trying to touch Barry again. He reached for his gun but found empty air. He must have dropped it when Eobard ran him out of the prison. “You’re fading!”

 

Barry slowly opened his eyes slowly and raised his hand to look at it, “Oh. I am. Would you look at that.”

 

“Why are you fading?!” Len asked, worried that this was it and his eyes filling with tears. Barry was moving on. He was almost completely transparent.

 

“I’m not sure. But don’t worry, you’ll be seeing me again.” Barry voice was almost a whisper. And before Len could say anything else, like tell him how much he loved him, Barry was gone.

 

“Barry?! No!” Len felt around in the grass frantically for some trace of Barry, tears flowing freely down his face, “You can’t leave now! I didn’t tell you how I feel! I love you Barry, come back!”

 

But Barry didn’t come back. Len counted the seconds, then minutes since Barry disappeared as he cried silently. Behind him the exorcism was starting to get louder and more violent sounding but he could care less. Eventually his count reached the half hour mark and the exorcism finished up, the Reverse Flash vanishing entirely. 

 

Len quickly pulled himself together, thinking back to one of his old beliefs,  _ no man is worth your tears _ . Barry was though. He wiped his face clean and stood up, turning to face the group. Caitlin had joined them at some point, when exactly, Len didn’t know. 

 

“Where’s Barry?” Cisco asked even though the look on his face said he knew already.

 

“Gone.” Len’s voice cracked slightly.

 

“I’m sorry, Len.” Caitlin’s voice was filled with sorrow.

 

“Yeah, me too.”

 

“Let’s go get your shoulder fixed.” Caitlin reached and gently took Len’s hand, leading him back to the van.


	8. The End

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is the end, folks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp, this is the end! Sorry it took so long to wrap up - real life kind of caught up with both of your authors - but we made it! I hope you like it :)  
> Many many thanks to frencnavy for betaing this!

Len hesitates in front of the Motorcar at noon the next day, habit having taken him there automatically. But he can’t go there without Barry. He turns and leaves, walking past his now parked car, and just - keeps walking. Block after block, mind numb. He’s never going to eat in the Motorcar with Barry again, never going to treat him to lunch in an outing that was suspiciously close to a date, never going to talk to him, never going to see him laugh, never going to see him do anything ever again. Because Barry has everything he wanted now. He’s moved on into whatever afterlife was waiting for him. And surely whatever awaited heroes like Barry Allen was nothing like what awaited criminals like Leonard Snart. Barry had died, and used that to save people. And what had Len ever done, that wasn’t for himself? No, they wouldn’t meet in the afterlife, either. Barry was well and truly lost to him.

That’s what you get for falling in love with a dead boy, his mind tells him. You lost him before you met him. He ignores the thought and keeps walking, removing his cold gun to idly spray graffiti on nearby walls. He passes the next hour that way, until a flash of lightning streaks in front of his vision. It whirls around him, creating a circle of light surrounding him. His heart in his throat, Len takes out the cold gun and sprays the circle of light. Just as had happened that first time, and as had happened so many times since, a man falls out of the lightning, looking up and Len and smiling.

“Len, why weren’t you in the Motorcar? I waited and waited for you to show up, but you never came, and so I went looking for you.” Barry’s ever-present smile wilts slightly. “Do you not want to see me anymore? Now that you don’t need to help me?”

Len finds himself being inexplicably honest. “I always want to see you. I just didn’t think I could. Caitlin told us about how to get rid of ghosts, remember? I thought you’d...moved on.”

Barry’s smiling wider now. “I can’t move on until my purpose is fulfilled. And now that my dad is free, and the Reverse Flash is gone -”

“You don’t have a purpose anymore,” Len says, resigned but confused, because what is Barry still doing here?

“I do,” Barry says. “Loving you. That’s my purpose. I can’t move on until I’m done with that, and I don’t think I’ll be done being in love with you for a long, long time.”

Len smiles back at him, and the two of them turn to walk, arm in arm, through Central City’s streets.

…

Len and Barry walked hand in hand back into Star Labs for the first time since Barry’s reappearance. Barry was nearly vibrating in excitement and nerves, even without his speed.

After they'd gone back to the MotorCar diner, Len had called the labs to inform them of Barry's return. Everyone was relieved and happy that Barry wasn't gone. Then Harrison Wells spoke up. “Thank god. That would have been a waste of good parts.”

“What?” Barry asked, mildly confused and creeped out. Did Dr. Wells mean him?

“The bad news is that we can’t figure out how to make the cold gun last longer, or even prevent it from wearing off. The good news, is that you might not need it anymore,” Cisco said.

“What Cisco means in his own socially awkward way is we built a machine that might get you back to being human! Yay!” Caitlin sounded excited. “We all chipped in and worked on it too.”

“Wow! Really? I-I can be human again?” Barry reached out and grabbed Len’s hand, clutching it tight.

“Yeah, so hurry up and get over here as soon as you can! I’m excited to turn this puppy on!” Cisco exclaimed excitedly.

The entire Star Labs team is waiting for them with nervous smiles and anticipation. The only one who doesn’t look nervous or excited was Harrison but he never showed much emotion until and experiment worked out how he wanted. 

Barry is visibly jittery, twitching and wringing his hands as he looked around for the machine that was supposed to give him life again. Len is the only thing tethering him to one place with his arm around Barry’s waist. Otherwise he’d be buzzing around the room nervously, looking over people’s shoulders at what they were doing to make the machine work.

Barry stepped in the machine, glancing nervously at all of them before closing his eyes. The machine doors closed and Barry had brief feeling of claustrophobia. The machine switches on and at first Barry felt nothing then the machine reached full power, he assumed, and things started to feel decidedly different. Whenever he had been made solid by Len’s gun he hadn't felt much different from when he was incorporeal, just slower. 

This was a whole new world of sensation. He felt heavy and at first, as his body formed around his consciousness, he could feel his heart start pumping and blood starting to rush through veins while a newly formed nervous system started sending signals to his brain. It would have driven a normal person mad if it had continued but it faded away into the background and Barry cautiously twitched a finger, not noticing that the machine had switched off and he was in the dark discovering his new body. The finger moved and he felt his first smile stretch across his face. He hadn't known he missed the feeling of smiling until that moment and he decided he would smile as much as possible from then on.

From the outside there was only a strange humming noise, and then it stopped, and the power went out. Cisco fished his cell phone out of his pocket to act as a flashlight. When he shines it over the spot where Barry was, he sees that Barry is standing upright inside the machine, looking both corporeal and really confused. And naked. After throwing Barry a pair of clothes Len brought and letting him dress, they helped him out of the machine while marveling at what they had managed to accomplish.

“Barry!” Caitlin’s voice is soft but filled with excitement as she walks over to greet Barry with a hug. To her pleased surprise, he stays solid for her to hug. He looks pleasantly surprised as well. “So the machine worked?”

He grins back at her. “Feels like it."

“Well, let me run a couple tests and we’ll see if it worked.” Caitlin smiles and gets back to doing what she had come over to do before she hugged him.

Len watches Caitlin work, worried that Barry was still dead. It wasn’t that he wasn’t okay with Barry being dead, it was just that he was sure eventually the cold gun would quit working on Barry and he wouldn’t see him again until he himself died. Even then there was no guarantee Len would end up like Barry.

After testing him to determine that he was, for all intents and purposes, alive, they send him home with Len to wait until they regain power back at the lab.

“You know, I don’t have a house anymore,” Barry says as they walk away from the lab. “Or money, or anything really. It all went to distant family after we died.”

Len doesn’t know what to say. “They’ll probably let you work at the labs. You could earn a paycheck, buy your own things, rent a place.”

“I don’t want to rent a place, though,” Barry says.

“You’re alive, now. Living people need places to live in.”

“I know, I just - I was wondering if I could live with you?”

“You can stay as long as you like while you’re looking for a place, Barry,” Len says. “I won’t let you be homeless.”

“No,” Barry seems frustrated. “I don’t want to stay with you while I’m looking for a place. I want to live with you forever. As boyfriends.”

Len’s not sure what to say, and uses his default retort, which is snark. “Asking me to live in sin before even asking me on a date?”

Barry tilts his head. “But we have been on dates, for months now. You’ve been buying me lunch and dinner every day.”

“That’s not - those weren’t dates, Barry.”

“Why not? We ate, you paid, you even held my hand sometimes.”

“Because - before a date, both people agree that it’s a date.”

“Ok,” Barry says. “Then this is me saying that when we go to dinner tonight, it’s going to be a date.”

There’s a hundred things Len could and should stay in response to that, but as he looks at Barry’s grin, what comes out instead is “Ok.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please tell us what you thought of this!


End file.
